Stephen Meaders personal copy of TLN

[traplines]

Howard Looney wrote I guess what you'd call an autobiography of Stephen Meader. You can access it here. ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: STEPHEN W. MEADER, I've been in touch with Howard a few times trying to find some of the personal effects of Stephen Meader. Some of his things are at the university of Delaware special collections dept. I checked with them trying to find the diaries of Jim Vanderbeck that Stephen Meader used to write the book but I came up empty. Howard told me that John H Meader, Stephen Meaders son, had given him Stephens personal copy of Trap Lines North. And taped inside the book was a picture of a big wolf. I asked Howard to scan the picture and send it me which he did. I'd like to thank Howard for sharing this picture with us!
Russ Kerr

[ralph]

Russ, Boy, that' either a really big wolf, or a small girl! I wonder if Meader based the, "Big Wolf," on this one in the photo. Finding it in his personal copy of TLN certainly begs the question. Ralph

[ralph]

I read through Howard Looney's dissertation, at least until it got to the discussion of TLN, which is around page 75, and found that Dodd, Mead only published one of Meader's books, TLN. Using the combination of Dodd, Mead, and Stephen Meader on Google, I found that the University of Indiana library system had a large collection of Dodd, Mead material among which was a file on the Trap Lines North book. Naturally, the question popped into my head, I wonder if THE diaries could have been stuck in this file for all these years?? After some email correspondence with the archivist at the IU library system the answer was, alas, no. There was, however, the handwritten agreement between Dodd, Mead and Jim Vanderbeck giving Dodd, Mead permission to use his diary as the basis of a book to be written by Stephen Meader, which the archivist called, "an incredible find." In addition, the file contained the contract between Dodd, Mead and Stephen Meader for the book, and some other miscellaneous correspondence, eighteen pages in all. I had the whole file copied and sent to me at a cost of slightly less than seven dollars, which I thought was a bargain! When I got the file, the handwritten agreement was indeed the centerpiece of the whole file. It was written on Northland Outfitters letterhead, addressed to Dodd, Mead, and it looks like Meader himself wrote the agreement, and it was signed by James Vanderbeck and R. L. Vanderbeck. (Big Lindsay). The date was June 16, 1935. The agreed on value of the authorization was fifty dollars. In the margin, to the left of the value was written, "Pd."
The contract between Dodd, Mead and Stephen Meader looks like a standard agreement between and author and a publisher, with the exception of a typed in addition agreeing to pay the cost of Meader's trip to Nakina.

If we can get the proper permissions from the Vanderbeck and Meader families, the existing Northland Outfitters, and the Lilly Library, University of Indiana, perhaps we can include on this site, the handwritten agreement, which is considered a rare document.

[twister]

Wonderful work Ralph, hope you can get,er done!
jon

[BRIAN]

I have been searching for these for years...Question (reference the letters)..I wonder if they ended up going to the UK with those lost photos

[Fred Lockwood]

Just a thought but as the Vanderbeck family was from Canada where is the contract they would of signed with George Harrup the publisher that would of been used to publish and distribute TLN in Canada and the UK? Maybe the missing diaries are with a UK University.